World News in Brief: Food aid relief for Rohingya, 5 new Security Council members, jailing of Russian poets draws rebuke from rights expert

World News in Brief: Food aid relief for Rohingya, 5 new Security Council members, jailing of Russian poets draws rebuke from rights expert

“The entire Rohingya population” from Myanmar will benefit, according to the UN agency, which increased the value of its monthly food voucher from $8 to $10 per person on 1 January. Until early last year vouchers were worth $12 but WFP was forced to reduce their value in March to $10 because of funding gaps….

Read More
Gaza hospital destroyed, WHO chief reiterates ceasefire call

Gaza: UN calls for urgent aid scale-up amid new mass exodus to Rafah

“A traumatized and exhausted population” is being “crammed into a smaller and smaller sliver of land,” UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths warned on social platform X on Friday. But serious obstacles persist to bringing more aid to those in need amid relentless Israeli bombardment and intense fighting on the ground. UN humanitarian affairs coordination…

Read More
WHO and partners deliver aid to two Gaza hospitals in high-risk missions

WHO and partners deliver aid to two Gaza hospitals in high-risk missions

Teams that undertook the high-risk missions witnessed intense hostilities in their vicinity, as well as high patient loads and overcrowding caused by people seeking refuge. They also reported that food needs remain dire across the enclave, which is impacting operations, with hungry people stopping convoys in hopes of finding something to eat. WHO Director-General Tedros…

Read More
World News in Brief: Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza, cholera spreading in Sudan, aid for eastern Ukraine

World News in Brief: Senior Humanitarian Coordinator for Gaza, cholera spreading in Sudan, aid for eastern Ukraine

Holland’s outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag will facilitate, coordinate, monitor and verify aid consignments to the embittered enclave, in line with a recent Security Council resolution. She will also establish a mechanism to accelerate humanitarian relief shipments through States that are not party to the conflict. She is expected to take up the assignment…

Read More
Barely a drop of safe water to drink in Gaza, UN aid agency warns

Barely a drop of safe water to drink in Gaza, UN aid agency warns

“Access to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death…children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Children and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted. Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation…

Read More
World News in Brief: WFP forced to halt some food aid in Sudan, DR Congo elections, peacekeeping chief visits CAR

World News in Brief: WFP forced to halt some food aid in Sudan, DR Congo elections, peacekeeping chief visits CAR

WFP described the decision taken on safety grounds as a major setback to humanitarian efforts in the country’s breadbasket, where staff had been regularly providing aid to over 800,000 people, including many who had escaped the fighting in Khartoum. The ongoing fighting makes it extremely challenging for humanitarian agencies to safely deliver assistance, especially with…

Read More
Chocolate Supplements Aid Cognitive Ability in Older Adults, Research

Chocolate Supplements Aid Cognitive Ability in Older Adults, Research

Massachusetts: A recent study found that older adults who took chocolate supplements had better cognitive performance. According to media reports, the above clinical trial divided a group of elderly adults into two groups, one with a lower quality diet. Both groups used chocolate supplements for two years. The results of better cognitive ability were found…

Read More